Personality Disorder and PTSD What’s In a Name?

Guest post,,,,,

What’s In a Name?-
Personality Disorder and PTSD Things are changing in the military. Over the past five years, soldiers returning from Middle Eastern battlegrounds are being saddled with a new label, personality disorder. While the military recognizes Post Traumatic Stress disorder as an illness that results from warfare ---i.e. a treatable illness---- personality disorders are grounds for immediate medical discharge.

Personality Disorder Diagnosis Statistics
Between 2005 and 2007, the Army alone discharged nearly 1,000 soldiers for having personality disorders. The symptoms of personality disorder are very similar to those experienced by someone in the throes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

What is Personality Disorder?
Personality Disorder is defined as “a deeply engrained maladaptive pattern of behavior”. While PTSD is brought about by extreme environmental stresses, personality disorders are generally brought about by some combination of early childhood trauma and genetic predisposition. According to the military, a personality disorder constitutes a pre-existing condition. Therefore, those who are diagnosed with a personality disorder are not given psychiatric help after being discharged.

Policy Changes
When veterans’ advocacy groups confronted the military at-large for their increased reporting of personality disorders, they re-evaluated their strategy for diagnosis. Since this re-evaluation, the reported rates of PTSD have increased dramatically.

Blighted Records
While the changes in policy have potentially helped newly returning soldiers, they do little to help veterans who have a record blighted by a personality disorder diagnosis. Unlike their counterparts who are diagnosed with PTSD, a diagnosis of personality disorder carries a much less desirable prognosis. Further, a discharge due to a pre-existing medical condition carries with it implication that the soldier knowingly lied on the medical profile they filled out when joining the military.

Righting Wrongs
The same veteran’s groups that brought the increase in potentially false diagnoses to the attention of military review committees are now seeking out former soldiers to connect them with the psychiatric assistance for PTSD. By doing this, groups like Give an Hour, among others, hope to determine the extent of the false diagnosis and to help veterans’ who otherwise would have little recourse for care.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is a passionate blogger on the topic of education and free college scholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.